‘Moonshiner’s Daughter’ author at Blue Ridge Books

Mary J. Messer, author of the newly published Appalachian memoir Moonshiner’s Daughter, will be at Blue Ridge Books at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14.

In the book, Messer wrote about her memories growing up in the Smokies during the ‘40s and ‘50s.

“It’s not always a comfortable story to read, but it is truly uplifting because she was able to survive and overcome the poverty and abuse that she experienced as a child,” said Allison Best-Teague, co-owner of Blue Ridge Books.

Messer is donating a portion of the sales of Moonshiner’s Daughter to REACH of Haywood to support their mission of intervention-prevention of domestic violence, sexual assault and elder abuse.

828.456.6000 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
. www.moonshinersdaughter.com.

Reading Room

Like some other readers I know, my taste in books these last 20 years or so has shifted from fiction to non-fiction, especially history, biography, and literary studies. I still follow certain novelists — Anne Tyler, Pat Conroy, James Lee Burke, and others — and still review novels for this paper, but find that works of fiction simply don’t appeal as much as when I was in my twenties and thirties, when I read stacks of novels and poetry.